Transcript Achieving Livable - Purdue e-Pubs | Purdue University

Achieving Livable Communities
Through Transportation
Purdue Road School
March 8, 2011
Why Livable Communities
 Livable …
 is sustainable and can enhance environmental performance
 Provides safe, reliable, economical transportation options
 promotes reinvestment in existing communities
 can improve community quality of life
 meets the mobility needs of communities, families, and
businesses.
How livable communities
 Not just a single project…Not even two or three projects
 Starts with Visioning
 Then the planning and the process
 There’s policy
 There’s partnership
 There’s design
 And then…. The implementation and funding
Agenda
 Safe Routes to School
 St . Thomas Aquinas
 The Project School
 Why SRTS?
 Bike Facilities
 Madison, Wisconsin
 Why Bike Facilities?
 Pedestrian and Multi-Use
Facilities
 B-Line
 National Road Heritage Trail
 Why Trails?
 Traffic Calming
 Road Diets
 Other Types of Traffic
Calming
 Why Traffic Calming?
 Safety
 Plainfield/Indianapolis
 Why Safety?
Safe Routes to School
Safe Routes to
School
 At St. Thomas Aquinas, livability
starts with making the
neighborhood bikable and
walkable for school children
Safe Routes to School
 At the Project School livability
means teaching children about
the importance of active minds
and bodies
Why SRTS?
• Approximately 50% of children walked and biked
to school in 1969 . In 2009, the number was just
13%
• Returning to 1969 levels of walking and bicycling
to school would save:
• 3.2 billion vehicle miles
• 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide
• 89,000 tons of other pollutants
• Al equal to keeping more than 250,000 cars off the
road for a year.
• As much as 20 to 30% of morning traffic is
generated by parents driving their children to
schools.
• One-third of schools are in “air pollution danger
zones.”
• Approximately 55% of children are bused, and
we spend $17.5 billion nationally each year on
school bus transportation  an average of $692
per child transported per year.
Bike Facilities
Bike Lanes
 In Madison, Wisconsin, livability
means safe bicycling for all
users
Why Bike Facilities?
 Bicycling contributes $1.5 billion to Wisconsin's economy every year.
 13,200 bike-related jobs
 $535 million in tourism dollars from out-of-state visitors
 reduced health care costs
 Tourism
 Sparta, Wisconsin welcomes 15,500 visiting bicyclists each year to the Elroy Sparta bike
trail. The Wisconsin DNR reports that 100,000 people use the trail annually.
 Business
 Bicycle Corporation, Saris Cycling Group, Planet Bike, Pacific Cycles, Waterford Precision
Cycles reside in Wisconsin.
 Hundreds of locally-owned bike shops and bicycle-friendly businesses support the vitality of
local economies.
 Wisconsin bicycle industry adds nearly $600 million annually to the state's economy.
 Health Care
 If just the residents of Madison and Milwaukee got enough moderate exercise by replacing
some short car trips with bike trips, healthcare costs could be cut by $319 million.
Pedestrian and Multi-Use Facilities
Bloomington’s B-Line Trail
National Road
Heritage Trail
 Today: 38 miles currently
open in multiple segments
 Use abandoned
Pennsylvania and Vandalia
rail corridors
 Closely follow the
alignment of US 40
 Eventually: Terre Haute to
Richmond. 150 miles
cross-state
Why Trails?
 Indiana Study of Trail Use
conducted in 2000 found:
• 2,609 users in one month on
the Pennsy Rail Trail (Greenfield)
• 27,574 users on the Monon during same month in Indianapolis
• 86 to 95% of trail neighbors viewed trail development as
either having no effect or a positive effect on their property’s
value
• Across 6 trail sites surveyed throughout the state of Indiana,
69% indicated that the trail improved their neighborhood.
Traffic Calming
Types of Traffic Calming
 Narrowed lanes
 Reduced number of lanes
 On-street parking
 Speed humps, tables, or cushions
 Chicanes
 Curb extensions / bump-outs
 Refuge islands
 Road Closures
 Converting one-way streets to two-way
streets
 Chokers
Road Diets
 Matches land use and transportation contexts on existing
streets
 Reduces the number of vehicular travel lanes
 Excess pavement can be used for urban trails or bike lanes or
for sidewalks, greenspace, landscaped medians
Lincoln Avenue, Evansville
Road Diet Case Study
 Valencia Street, San Francisco
 Reduced from 4 lanes with on-street parking to 2 lanes with on-
street parking plus bike lanes and center TWLTL
 Bike usage increased 144% from 88 to 215 bicycles during the
PM peak hour
 Motor vehicle traffic decreased by 10% from 22,000 ADT to
20,000 ADT
 Traffic on nearby streets increased by 3.8%
 No significant changes in collision rates on Valencia or parallel
routes
Safety
Intersection / Corridor Safety
 Highway Safety Improvement
Program (HSIP) - to achieve
significant reduction in traffic
fatalities and serious injuries
on all public roads through
the implementation of
infrastructure-related
highway safety improvements
Plainfield Intersection Analysis
Proven Safety Countermeasures
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Road Safety Audits
Rumble Strips and Rumble Stripes
Median Barriers
Safety Edges
Roundabouts
Left and Right-Turn Lanes at Stop-Controlled Intersections
Yellow Change Intervals
Medians and Pedestrian Refuge Islands in Urban and
Suburban Areas
Walkways
Achieving Livability
 What has worked in your communities?
Thank you
Jennifer Pyrz
Parsons Brinckerhoff
[email protected]
317.287.3411
Bicycling Industry Metrics
 In Portland, the bicycling industry is robust. And growing.
 Bicycle-related activity brings in about $90M
 The bicycle-related industry sector has increased by 38% since
2006
 Number of bicycle-related companies has grown by 50% since
2006. Most new businesses are small and locally-owned.
 The bicycle-related industry provides between 850 and 1150
jobs
 Nearly 4,000 annual races, rides, events and tours are held in
Portland every year. This is nearly a doubling of 2006 numbers.
Source: Alta Planning + Design
Multi-use Paths and Urban Trails
Agenda
Implementation
 Safe Routes to School
 The Project School
 Hazard busing
 Bike Facilities
 City of Indianapolis or Louisville
 Wisconsin economic indicator and crash
reduction
 Pedestrian and Multi-Use Facilities
 Cultural Trail
 B-Line
 Traffic Calming
 Road Diets
 HARMONI initiatives
 User costs / savings
 Safety
 Plainfield/Indianapolis
Funding
 Safe Routes to School
 CMAQ funds
 TIGER grants
 TE grants
 HSIP funds
 Private contributions